I have known about this buck since he was 1.5 He was a pencil tined 8 pt with the same angled brows. Nothing too alarming just kept him on the radar and occasionally caught a visual or a trail cam of him. Last year at 2.5 I was surprised with the mass he had. None of the other bucks around had good mass genetics. So we tried to focus trail cams on areas we suspected he was using to and from bedding.
This July we began to capture a few pics and thought we would take him if given the chance. After the decision was made, I wanted to try and get him in velvet on our first ever "TN Velvet Hunt." The long story short on that weekend hunt was I pressured him hard! Sunday morning I went in after him at his bedding...full moon, on stand at 4:00 and it wasn't getting light until 7:30!!! At 5:15 I seen him stop and stand underneath my stand at 16 yards for over 3 minutes. I knew when daylight finally got there I would turn around and kill him in his bed!! NOT HAPPENING! The deer was gone, and I did not see or get another picture of him until Nov 22nd, 2 hours after dark
Now this is where is gets intense! We have a neighbor that is a lead tosser! He shoots pretty often through season. I was told he is retired, but he hunts almost every day. I always have to wonder if one of the deer Im after made it by him alive or not
At 7:26 am I watch a small half rack go by. Snapped a couple pics and thought cool, they're moving. 7:56 am.... BOOM! I thought well the neighbor blasted the half rack. 7 minutes later I see blonde antlers running through the woods. This deer is RUNNING and headed towards the buck bedding area of the 8pt I want to kill. I get ready and steady, try to stop him twice, he isn't slowing, I finally yelled loud, and the deer stopped in his tracks, turned broadsided, looked over his shoulder at me! I took aim and dropped him in his tracks!!
As I set there trying to figure out what happened, I thought "when he shot the half rack, it spooked this one to me"..... NOPE, not the case. When I got to my deer, I realized the neighbor grazed his belly! Didn't get up high enough to catch anything but white hair and muscle!
Dang I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I thought right then and there....every since joining the Beast and trying to learn how to deer hunt, I sometimes over analyze things and put too much thought into things...and days like this I am happy to be lucky instead of good. Although truth be told, I have learned so much since coming to the BEAST. So many of you guys are inspirations to me and make me want to work harder at learning and hunting deer! I thank you all for that and one other TRUE HUNTING BEAST I will never forget and miss every year, that went on ahead of us... RIP Stanley
Thanks for the reads guys!
Those of you that know me know how hard it is to keep my pug out of the pictures
